Political fundraising tool taps social networks

[cory777]

Source: AP

BOSTON – Candidates in some top political races are raising big sums of money using software that taps donors' social networks, an endeavor that lets the donors track their friends' donations with the zeal a fantasy baseball team owner uses to monitor player statistics.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Charles Baker in Massachusetts and two GOP Senate candidates, Marco Rubio in Florida and Rob Portman in Ohio, are among those using a software-based fundraising tool called BlueSwarm to successfully tap their social networks for campaign cash. The Democratic Governors Association also plans to use it.

The software democratizes the fundraising process by letting average citizens not just donate, but raise money themselves from their Outlook contacts or their Facebook friends.

The traditional political fundraising model relies on experienced bundlers to hustle money from a small set of well-connected donors.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100613/ap_on_hi_te/us_social_fundraising